School
Social contract theory
Social contract theory holds that political authority and moral rules are justified by what free and equal people would agree to.
Thomas Hobbes, in Leviathan (1651), argued that people would accept an absolute sovereign to escape a war of all against all; John Locke grounded limited government in consent and natural rights; and Jean-Jacques Rousseau sought the general will. In the twentieth century John Rawls revived the idea with the original position, David Gauthier derived morality from rational bargaining, and T. M. Scanlon developed contractualism. On this site it answers questions on contract-based ethics (3.2.4), sovereignty and the state (6.4.3) and political philosophy.
Thinkers of this school
- Thomas Hobbes1588 – 1679
- John Rawls1921 – 2002
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712 – 1778
- David Gauthier1932 – 2023
- T. M. Scanlonb. 1940
Guide: Schools of Philosophy: The Main -isms and the Questions They Answer
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Hobbes’s ‘sudden glory’ explains far more laughter than its critics admit
Every textbook dismisses the superiority theory in a paragraph. Hobbes says in Leviathan chapter 6 that ‘sudden glory’ is the passion that makes the grimaces called laughter, caused either by some act of our own that pleases us or by seeing some…
Started by Javier Ferrandis6 replies -
Refusing to aggregate is contractualism’s best feature, not its embarrassing bug
Scanlon's transmitter room case: a technician is trapped under equipment in a TV station, receiving painful electric shocks. Freeing him means interrupting the broadcast of a big football match for fifteen minutes, and millions of people are watching. Add up the millions…
Started by Pieter van Dijkhuizen5 replies